Credit: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko
1 of 10. An election commission worker adjusts a number on a ballot box at a polling station in Kiev, October 25, 2014.
Poroshenko, who is expecting a big win for his political bloc in the first parliamentary election since the overthrow of the Moscow-backed leader Viktor Yanukovich, said he saw a 'radically new' assembly emerging on Sunday.
But to push through his reform strategy, he needed 'a majority in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament), one that is for reform and not corrupt, one that is pro-Ukrainian and pro-European and not pro-Soviet,' he said in a televised address to the people.
'Without such a majority in parliament, the President's programme which millions of Ukrainians believed in June will simply remain on paper,' he said.
Poroshenko, who was elected president in May by a landslide after 'Euromaidan' street protests ousted Yanukovich, called Sunday's snap vote to clear out Yanukovich loyalists from parliament and secure increased legitimacy for Kiev's pro-Western leadership in the face of pressure from Russia.
The 'Euromaidan' revolution was broadly supported by Western governments but Moscow denounced Yanukovich's ouster as a coup by a 'fascist junta'. Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine's Crimea region, which has a Russian majority, and backed separatist rebellions that broke out in the industrialized east.
Those rebellions led to a conflict in which about 3,700 people have been killed.
Poroshenko said he wanted a clear reform plan to emerge from any coalition agreement among the parties rather than 'sweet promises' in exchange for government portfolios.
He also pledged to stick to his peace plan to find a negotiated end to the conflict in the east and ruled out ordering any military storm of separatist strongholds such as the city of Donetsk.
'We can only get those territories back by a political settlement and not by military means. Nobody will stop me from seeking a peaceful way out of the situation,' he said.
(Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Stephen Powell)
Entities 0 Name: Poroshenko Count: 3 1 Name: Yanukovich Count: 3 2 Name: Kiev Count: 2 3 Name: Russia Count: 2 4 Name: Ukraine Count: 1 5 Name: Rada Count: 1 6 Name: Viktor Yanukovich Count: 1 7 Name: Moscow Count: 1 8 Name: Stephen Powell Count: 1 9 Name: Donetsk Count: 1 10 Name: Richard Balmforth Count: 1 11 Name: Russian Count: 1 12 Name: Crimea Count: 1 13 Name: Reuters\/Valentyn Ogirenko Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1z6bGUZ Title: War-scarred Ukraine counts down to key vote Description: Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine voters will go to the polls Sunday in elections set to dramatically reshape parliament, after a year of upheavals in which a deadly pro-Russian uprising has threatened to splinter the ex-Soviet state. Campaigning ended on Friday for the polls called by President Petro Poroshenko in August.
